nice shiny new thread

no, there is no weird sound issue since i got them. i still use the same old driver for w8 from dell (since 2012); i got an 'updated' one from windows updates (!), dated 9/7/2012 (yeah older than dell's, which is dated 10/25/2012).

wow. one year without formatting?! i get rid of my os at least 2 times a year. (this year i have a few more because of w7 to w8 pro to w8.1)

yeah reinstalling is better to check if it's the os. to me, it's likely not the sound driver.

i think they should check the display panel also (sometimes it's the loosened connection of the panel that causes this). you can use an external monitor to test.

if not, yeah, it's time for new gpu

edit: maybe i was wrong about the driver dates.

side note - someone already has a simple workaround to patch the plextor m5m. I forgot i still have the dvdrom drive


This post has been edited by horns: Nov 26 2013, 07:42 AM

3 times doa? that sucks :/ i guess they have changed almost all the stuff except for the mobo.

good tip

maybe next time ask them to bring mobo (with latest bios), gpu, and lcd (change the mobo first). you might wanna try reinstall the gpu driver too. sorry i am not familiar with the driver for 7970m.

so far my experience with aw is not bad. (nevermind i touched the wooden table already)

samsung evo is a good drive. just put it on the device which you need space the most.

for now, personally i still like 840 pro and plextor m5pro xtreme (due to mlc flash hehe)

still number one ma

i suppose the writes are mainly for game downloads and updates. it should be fine for tlc ssd's like evo.

in future i do hope samsung consider to release pro versions that have higher capacities lol! (for enterprise ssd's they already have those )

well.. that is one of the much cheaper options, however the outcome is really uncertain. (alternatively, you can also check taobao out; i believe it's cheaper there).

i always keep the battery in. from time to time i will run the laptop on battery to drain it and recharge. recent batteries are fine because they have some preventive measures to ensure longer shelf life. (i.e. not charging if it's above 95%)

i think putochip123 has one r4 with good specs on hand (i think i saw it on his fb; there should be a post regarding that in garage sales). the rest i think you should scout garage sales or places mentioned by raymondtong94.

i prefer the look and design of newer 17. however, in terms of features that come with haswell chip/cpu, other than 4x sata 3, the rest are not that impressive.

the guys that i know who can offer customizations are putochip123 and illegear. or, you get the card from somewhere and ask raymondtong94 for help.

have you contacted dell Malaysia to see if they have such services? by the way which card are you talking about?

will tell you when i play some games. iirc it's above 85c on load; idle is about 58c.

yeah for cpu, there are differences in everything. that's why i need the higher end cpu.

This post has been edited by horns: Nov 29 2013, 09:57 AM

yeah it depends on how a person define 'better deals'.

to many, they need good parts, good warranty, and good service. that i think putochip123 can deliver with a fair price.

a small fraction of us need the parts only, because we can handle the machine well. in the case of getting parts only, some of us prefer to have a good warranty (local warranty usually, because when things break down you save time to wait for shipping to and fro), while some don't.

as for the price.. it can be as simple as that it's a business, so volume matters. 30mil people in Malaysia versus 314mil people in US (it's 10 times man. although other factors still apply but volume alone, or rather, market size, is enough to justify why things in US are cheaper than MY). furthermore if you're talking about China, it has good market size and it is also the origin of parts. (if i were in China i will get all parts and build my own aw18, well, m18x r2, maybe name it hornsware and sells it online lol!)

that's why i consider in general putochip123 is a good seller to many people. in fact he's one of the sellers that i think still care.

This post has been edited by horns: Nov 29 2013, 09:58 AM

.. or it can be hornyware preloaded with pr0n (1080p of course); all bookmarks are pr0n sites; torrent clients preloaded with pr0n seeds (with subscription options to pay-per-view or unlimited latest feeds some more). don't worry about performance; it's for sure powerful (at least 680m sli; the screen is 120Hz 3D so your eyes will not feel tired after long hours of watching movies).

now how's that sound? i just create a business model that makes people rich

on the side note: there is still a small glitch that i need to fix to run w8.1 pro on r4. (perhaps it's my system tweaks) the issue is when i enable w8 fast boot (secureboot disabled), the laptop will not shut down properly (need force shutdown). i don't have this issue while on w8 pro.

well.. it's such a brilliant idea you know.. kinda like xbox. maybe we can call it pr0nbox. i also came out with all sorts of potential and high-margin spin-off sales dy..

ok ok ignore the above; the joke ends here.

well yeah i will help if i know the answers. i like minimalist setup it's easier for me to maintain. need to check on another laptop that has w8.1 on it. i suspect the bios a13 is the issue. maybe tonight i will do another round of clean install.

i think g55 will run it well for the lack of secureboot thing. (i have run a virtualized version of w8.1 pro on top of it; using it now; no issue and all drivers work)

i think we are still waiting for one. it's best to get one if your current card is a 660m.

yeah sure

in order to get more out of the laptop, it's better to give it more power.

it's better to clean up and replace thermal paste on a regular basis (same as gpu)

except for small issues with secureboot (which can be resolved easily by adjusting bios settings), there is no apparent issue. i mean, for r4.

er i'm talking about other issues.

for that secureboot watermark, there is no need to play with bios. you should update your w8.1 from windows updates. there was an official patch to remove it released last month.

source: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows...-boot-watermark

if you wanna run the OS on ssd, it's best to have ahci mode enabled for sata operation. the change will break the caching (raid mode). you still can use it as separate ssd.

to maintain that, don't change anything. just put in the ssd and it should run also but not sure if it's running optimally.

normally i check the driver first also.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms854226.aspx

nice. it's kind of hard to find a solution when there is no issue for us you know :/